The Saddest Attempt at Holocaust Denial I've Ever Seen

The American government has a collection of thousands of photos going back to the 1800's. I looked through every photo of the Nazi camps that I could find, but I could not find a single photo of a gas chamber for killing people. And the only ovens I could find were tiny.

Is there another archive that has photos of the Spielberg-style ovens and gas chambers? Or is it possible that the government never bothered to put those photos on the Internet?

If you believe the official Holocaust story, then you prove that it really happened as the government claims. Show us the photos, and explain the contradictory aspects of the prison camps, such as why the Nazis went to so much trouble to protect the prisoners from lice and typhus.

I looked through the evidence, and it looks like a big hoax. Show me where I'm making mistakes.

(1) On the issue of Hufschmid saying he "could not find a single photo of a gas chamber for killing people, I provided two photographs, both from the Majdanek camp.

(2) I answered Hufschmid's charge that the crematory ovens at Auschwitz-Birkenau were "ordinary funeral home ovens" and gave the relevant information on how they operated based on the document on these ovens from their produce, Topf und Söhne.

(3) In response to Hufschmid's challenge of "Show me where I'm making mistakes," I offered Bischoff's memo which used the word Vergasungskeller (gassing cellar), showed him, using several canonical studies of the Holocaust, that there is no "enforced death toll," the verdict against SS-Untersturmführer Max Täubner, which mentions a central governmental plan to kill the Jews of Europe, and, finally, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler's speech in October 1943 in occupied Poznan, Poland, in which he speaks specifically of the "extermination of the Jews."

Hufschmid never responded to my challenge to answer these issues directly. Instead, I discovered on August 17, 2006, that he had posted this Web page on July 16:

The answer, of course, is that we aren't. What Hufschmid is doing is ignoring the evidence presented to him on my first Web page responding to him. He doesn't even try to disprove what I've presented him with. He simply repeats the same lie that there is little evidence to be found to support the normative history of the Holocaust.

Then follow a series of rhetorical questions and statements. I'll address the relevant ones:

(2) "Why is some evidence of the Nazi death camps still hidden from us?"

I'm not aware of any evidence that is being withheld. Hufschmid is being intentionally vague and, in fact, lying when he says that this is the case.

(3) "For example, there are lots of photos of gas chambers."

Really? Hadn't Hufschmid stated on his earlier Web page that there weren't "lots of photos" of gas chambers? He's correct on this point, by the way, but – again – he's not being honest.

(4) "We are told that the blue stains are proof that human beings were killed in this room by cyanide."

No, that's not what I said. I said that the stains were proof that the rooms that are agreed upon by historians to have been gas chambers show these stains as proof of repeated exposures to cyanide gas.

(5) "Actually, photos do not prove the blue stains are from cyanide!"

If Hufschmid knew even the first thing about the physical chemistry of the Holocaust, he'd know that this is exactly what the photos prove.

The word for hydrocyanic acid (the active ingredient in Zyklon-B) in German is Blausäure, i.e., "blue acid." Hydrocyanic acid is also known as "prussic acid." This is because cyanide is used to create a compound known colloquially as "Prussian blue," which Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary defines as "any one of several complex double cyanides of ferrous and ferric iron; specifically, a dark blue amorphous substance having a coppery luster, obtained by adding a solution of potassium ferrocyanide (yellow prussiate of potash) to a ferric salt. It is used in dyeing, in ink, etc."

(6) "However, even after 60 years, nobody is allowed to take samples [from the walls of the gas chambers]!"

Actually, this is patently false, and Hufschmid is either ignorant or lying. The Institute for Forensic Research Krakow was allowed to take samples not once but twice, producing two reports in the 1990s. But there was an examination of samples done in 1945 but another group in Krakow.

The reason that samples are generally not allowed to be taken from Auschwitz-Birkenau is that it is a largely intact historical site of great value, and since the studies carried out by the Polish-based organizations all found cyanide residue on the walls of buildings said by eyewitnesses (both Sonderkommando and perpetrators) to be gas chambers. Thus the point has been proved, and the Polish government, which oversees the site, sees no reason to prove it again or for people with questionable motives (both Leuchter and Remer were on the defense teams of National Socialists when they collected their samples) to be allowed to take samples.

(7) "More shocking, many Europeans have been arrested for advocating an investigation of the Holocaust, or for disagreeing with the official story."

I actually asked Hufschmid on the phone on August 17 whether he could provide a single name of a person who was serving any time under a charge of "advocating an investigation of the Holocaust." He couldn't provide one. That's because there aren't any. No one is in jail in eleven European countries that have criminalized Holocaust denial has a person in jail charged with "advocating an investigation." In fact, you can even disagree with the official story and not go to jail. In almost every country that has such a law, you have to publish or speak in public – not simply disagree, and the prosecutors have to be able to prove that you are trying to incite hatred against Jews. (Notably, Poland also has a law against denying the crimes of the communists who ruled that country from 1945 to 1989, but no one ever mentions that.)

(8) "Likewise, we are fools if we waste our time arguing about the Holocaust when we only have a few crummy photographs."

But that was not all I provided.

(9) "Furthermore, we must be able to take core samples at the alleged sites of the mass graves in order to find out if there really are millions of bodies in the ground."

Off the top of my head, I know that this has been done at Belzec, Treblinka, and Auschwitz-Birkenau. Again, Hufschmid shows his ignorance of the facts.

(10) "The Jews helped Hitler and the Nazi party get control of Germany."

This is patently ridiculous, not to mention incredibly difficult to prove. The NSDAP was able to form a government in January 1933, and Hitler was appointed the chancellor as a consequence. This was the result of a democratic election. Unless Hufschmid can demonstrate that a minority that made up less than 1 percent of the German population in January 1933, then he is lying.

(11) "The Jews instigated both world wars."

I don't see how, and I've already addressed arguments from Hufschmid and Daryl Bradford Smith about this at great, great length.

(12) "The Jews created anti-Semitism in Germany to drive Jews out of Europe and into Palestine, and to unify Jews, and to bring pity to Jews."

Zionism was actually fairly unpopular in Germany in 1933. The vast majority of Jews that had settled in Palestine by 1933 had come from Poland the former Russian Empire.

(13) "Jews don't have funerals?"

Again, we see Hufschmid's ignorance. It is Jewish belief that once a body is buried, you do not disturb it. This is beside the point that probably half of the Jews murdered by the Nazis left no remains.

(14) "Many of the Jews are said to be buried in big pits, rather than incinerated."

Actually, this is not true, and anyone with even a cursory knowledge of Holocaust historiography knows this. Intact mass graves are pretty rare.

(15) "How about all the Jews that were turned into soap and lampshades?"

Not even normative historians believe these things. This is a red herring from Hufschmid.

(16) "The Holocaust should be considered a hoax until the Jews prove otherwise. The burden of proof is on them, not me or you."

And we have proven it countless times, as have countless non-Jews. Hufschmid's focus on "the Jews" throughout this entire piece belies a very serious prejudice, one noted by Dylan Avery and the other makers of Loose Change when they discussed the matter of the "9/11 Truth Movement" a few months ago. I have no interest in this bullshit, but click here if you want to hear Hufschmid exposed for the Jew-hater he is.

Finally, please note that at this writing (August 18), Hufschmid has refused to debate these points, even on entirely neutral territory.

Eric Hufschmid wrote a book called Painful Questions in the aftermath of 9/11, blaming Israel for the attacks. He was one of the first guys to write such a book, and so he got his 15 minutes, etc., but when better books came out and when, in particular, Loose Change came out and people began to see that Hufschmid was a Jew-hater above all, he got jealous and went off the deep end. Or deeper, as the case may be.

By the way, he also doesn't believe that Apollo XI landed on the moon.

BTW, Andrew, you can always reinforce your point about Vergasungskeller with this document, which mentions a blower no. 450 for Gaskeller. We know from other documents that this blower was needed for LK1. Unlike with Vergasungskeller, there is no wiggle room for deniers whatsoever.

Hufschmid's a professional conspiracy theory nutbar. Check out his flyers for a conspiracy theory party sometime. That said, there are a lot of Holocaust Deniers and anti-Semites in the 9-11 Denial Movement. Check out Rick Rajter sometime or SPINE (Scientific Professionals Investigating Nine-Eleven)--check out item #6 on their FAQ.

These were propaganda pieces from WWI that got circulated during WWII also. The Jews that circulated these stories weren't *lying*, Eric. They believed what they were saying. The Allies who spread them probably knew they were lying, however.

In reference to your comments about the holocaust and whether or not it really did happen or not which i will not comment on such a subject!!! due to lack of knowledge I have always been interested in russian history I find it very interesting that you mention Sergey Romanoff and gas chambers or ovens or whatever they are referred to.

Oh I am very new to this my question is how do you know any of this is true???? I am very interested in Russian history I find it very interesting that you should mention the name sergey romannoff and a number from some patent I guess from a gas chamber blower no 450 for geskeller what is LK1 vergasungskeller where were these documents found please respond. This info is very interesting to me as I see allot of documents concerning holocaust history and am trying to understand how this all ties into the romanoff story please be patient as this is all new but very interesting to me.

Excellent work on this site but I find the endless presentation of historical evidence, when used in an effort to rebuke revisionist rhetoric, a profitless endeavor! It is certainly educational to anyone who is receptive but worthless to those who have predetermined to ignore it. Horse...water?

Instead of taking the defensive against Holocaust deniers, who have always been impervious to facts, regardless of their validity, why not simply hold them to one, simple standard?

"It doesn't matter what you believe. The only thing that matters is what you can prove!"

Andrew, this is an excellent, thorough, and thought-out post. Brava! My favorite book of all time, "The World Must Know," by Michael Berenbaum, shows PLENTY of pictures that will give enough proof to the biggest nut job out there like Hufschmid! As much as you know about this topic, I'm guessing you have already read though. :)